POSTCARDS

FROM THE BIG BLUE

This is a play for primary schools about climate change and the effects on

low lying islands in the Pacific.

Schoolgirl Millie goes on holiday and meets local boy Anote, who has had to move yet again because of the king tides sweeping across his island. Salt water is destroying crops and the island will sooner or later become uninhabitable. But adults don’t seem to be able to take the truth on board, and when the president goes round the world to ask for help for his people, no one seems to care – except for Millie and her friends who hear the facts and determine to do what they can to support the islanders.

Despite its subject matter this is an uplifting play. Climate change is a fact, we have to deal with the consequences of our demands for goods and energy and find ways to share and provide security for all. I am astonished when I read about President Anote Tong having finally been able to buy land on Fiji to resettle the people of Kiribati and the comments following the report are full of denial of the fact of climate change, asserting that, somehow, endangered populations are guilty of their own demise and have something to gain by losing their islands.